[Angelo Lorenzo]

AVCHD isn’t a compression format, it’s just a branded mix of camera/recording media/file folder structure/tuned codecs.

AVCHD is compressed using a high bitrate version of h.264 which makes it more suitable for editing than highly compressed web video which may be of the same compression scheme.

I would probably install the Avid Quicktime codecs https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE-2-3-8 and export to Avid DNxHD (available in Premiere/Media encoder as a Quicktime video codec) as an intermediate file. It’s performance is similar to Apple ProRes.

Unless you know what you’re doing, then setting mpeg2 encoding settings to be edit friendly can be a daunting task.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I agree with John-Michael, just have him download the Avid LE codecs for Quicktime. Once they’re installed, they basically act like native quicktime codecs.

It should be fine to lose a generation if he encodes his results in DNxHD. If you’re working with higher bitrates like DNxHD 175 or higher, these can sustain some generation loss. I’ve seen it being fairly common in some TV production.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Not likely, if I recall. You can’t with the newer versions.

It may be easier, if you do it often, to design a mask OR you could create a new sequence, select all your clips from the old sequence, and copy/paste them to the new sequence.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

If you’re only using Premiere, look into the denoiser to remove general noise (freeze it on an area of noise only in the audio). For reverb removal, you could use a pretty aggressive noise gate – this is in the dynamics effect. For warmth you could try an EQ and play with the frequencies between 1k to 6k to give it some slight breath.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I suggest against it in this particular situation. Since quality isn’t his goal, my loose testing has suggested that rendering within Media encoder is 50-100% slower than rendering directly in AE for MP4/H.264 (MainConcepts). It also adds a number of additional steps that can’t be automated in the way that it could in AE.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

4K and 2K are optimized as digital cinema formats for different aspect ratios that either skirt max height or max width so delivering with shadow boxes or shadow columns are common. 1.9 as an aspect ratio is not a common cinematic ratio. Someone shooting full 4K or 2K should strongly consider using frame lines and safe areas.

What it comes down to is if you are converting aspect ratios. If you’re keeping 1.9 then you end up with shadow boxes. If you’re converting to 1.78 then you’ll crop the existing frame.

Either are acceptable unless you’re going to, say, TV where it would be unusual to see such slender shadowboxing. A full frame 1.78 crop would be preferred.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

How are you tracking them now?

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

[Rowan Eberle] “These videos must be playable on any computer with the standard included software, without the installation of additional codecs.”

Absolutely no such thing. Narrow your audience. MOV/H.264 is probably the most ubiquitous in terms of support for both modern computers and hardware-based playback.

Mac OSX – You’re safe with H.264 in the MOV container. H.264 was introduced to Quicktime around the time of OSX 10.3 (Tiger). Numerous tracking sources show 80%+ of Mac users are on OSX 10.6 or newer. MP4/H.264 is also supported, although I don’t know from which version onward – at least OSX 10.6 according to documentation.

Windows 8 and Windows 7 – MOV/H.264 or MP4/H.264 should be safe. Windows Media Player/Media Center should handle both.

Win XP sp2 and Vista – You’re looking at WMV version 8 or 9 for greatest support out-of-the-box. I wouldn’t count on MOV/H.264 or MP4/H.264 support unless VLC player is used.

With all that said, generally the MP4/H.264 codec (the one you are using, supplied by MainConcepts) is quicker by about 40%-50% in comparison to Quicktime’s native codec. You could batch re-wrap MP4 to MOV using numerous tools quickly at the end of your conversion if you feel more comfortable with MOV.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

It doesn’t make a lot of sense in a one-man-band workflow.

Where you start seeing it shine is where you might have a field producer going through clips, doing rough assembly cuts or for an assistant editor. Documentaries, reality, news and so on.

OnLocation was a very narrow app for a very niche application. Prelude is, although light on features, can find itself being used more often. You’ll notice it has system requirements much lighter than other CS applications so producers can use it on an average consumer computer. I think you’ll also find it much more valuable in some workflows once Adobe Anywhere kicks in.

As to why it’s so unstable, I’m not sure. Worked like a charm on Win7, haven’t had a chance to play with it since I recently upgraded to Win8.

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Grab Colorista free from Red Giant, sit down, watch this and learn a skill https://editorslounge.com/2012.06%20color/jun2012-hullfish.html

——————–
Angelo Lorenzo

Need to encode ProRes on your Windows PC?
Introducing ProRes Helper, an awesome little app that makes it possible
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services – Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
Fallen Empire – The Blog
A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks